In a conventional manufacturing process relating to the filling of containers with beverages which containers are then capped with crowns, it is conventional to dump large quantities of crowns into a hopper which is provided with apparatus to feed the crowns successively into a gravity feed conveyor chute. To facilitate production requirements, this gravity feed conveyor chute has a rectangular cross-sectional figuration small enough to orient the crowns so that the upper surfaces of the crowns face in one of two opposite directions but large enough to permit the passage therethrough of the crowns. The conveyor chute has a discharge end which feeds the crowns into a crown orienting apparatus which acts on the crowns to ensure that each crown to be fed to the container capping apparatus leaves the crown orienting apparatus with the upper surface thereof facing in the same direction. If a bent crown enters the crown orienting apparatus, it may become stuck therein so as to stop the flow of crowns to the container capping apparatus. When this occurs, it is necessary to stop the feeding of crowns to the conveyor chute and open an emergency door on the crowning orienting apparatus in order to remove the bent crown.